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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

nails

I remember a long time ago, a very wise pregnant woman sharing a secret with me... the secret of prenatal vitamins!

Let me hault for a second and give a little background information. I do not know when this started, but for as long as I can remember I have been a nail bitter (shreeeek!!) I know for all you anti germ people you are probably cringing, I know because I had a friend tell me once that under your finger nails is one of the 'germ-e-ist' places...ever...

I was slightly embarrassed, and choose never to bite in front of her again - just kidding. But, I really have always wanted to stop. I don't particularly like the habit - but I have just always done it. After many minorly successful attempts, and a few weeks here and there with actual grown out, pretty painted nails - I simply slip back into it... happened every time. I was always failing in my attempts.

Well, believe it or not - years later in college, we had a guest speaker at our church. I honestly could not tell you what he talked about - but when he was done, he stopped and felt that there maybe some that had a problem with nail bititng..... STRANGE thing to feel an impression about RIGHT?! Well, needless to say, my heart started pounding and that is usually an indicator for me that God is saying, "yes, Misha, you.." I obeyed, and as a friend prayed with me about the issue, which truely was a surface issue, all sorts of doors were open to different "failure feelings" I had bottled up. It really wasn't about the nail biting, folks. I was a real heart issue, the fact that I had never really dealt with spiritual discipline issues to overcome bad habits in my life. It was as if lack of control over biting my nails, was a sign of the inner stuggle I was having with spiritual disciplines....

Now this post got much more weighty than I intended it to be! Hang in there.

So, I never would have thought that I would get called out at church for nail biting, or uncover issues lingering my heart - but I did. Very interesting how the Lord choose to work that day.

Well, back to the reason I started this post: yesterday, I realized how FAST my nails have been growning! It's nice, real nice. That mixed with the fact that, because of this morning (all day) sickness that I have been experiencing - having my fingers anywhere near my mouth makes me quease!!How funny is that??

Thank you prenatal vitamins, for making my nails grow so fast! And thank you Lord, for my queasiness, that is keeping my nails far from my mouth. I see a bright future for my freshly painted nails.

Adoption is the Gospel

"[Adoption is] the whole story of redemption. The universe was meant to be a home- where the image bearers of God rule and serve under their Father. It was all to be ours. The primeval insurrection in the garden, though, turned the universe into an orphanage- the heirs were gone, done in by their appetites. A serpent now holds the cosmos in captivity, driving along the deposed rulers as his slaves. The whole universe is now an orphanage.

But then there's Jesus.

When we were still orphans, Christ became a substitute orphan for us. Though he was a son, he took on the humiliation of a slave and the horror of death (Phil. 2:6-8). Jesus walked to that far country with us, even to the depths of the hog pen that we'd made our home, and hung on a tree abandoned by his Father in our place."